October night
	“asleep among appearances”
			Octavio Paz
 
Strange world.
The warbling and ringing of car and shop alarms
			    in the street,
shadows on the ceiling.
A large mauve head appearing in an ochre background.
As though a dream landscape but not.
As though a painting but not.

Eyes shut 
“you were in another day”
off in the distant mountains 
where the darkness breathes
and the black silhouette of a hillside
edges a charcoal grey sky.
A seeming solidity, though thin as paper.

A near astonishment at the “facts”,
the surrounding sounds and sights.
The “what is this”, “who is…?”
No step back possible

But a step towards?    out?

Behind your grey eyes…    These surfaces

A watchfulness, the distance between,
all words probing towards this puzzle.
The possible bridges?    in a clash of dreams – 
though that too poetic and abstract to grasp,
shake with your hands.

A past “real”, memories haunting amongst reality;
the present so… ?     dazed?    startled?

The colours of the dim light
projected through blinds onto the ceiling,
the feel of a cotton pillowcase on my cheek
And beyond that?

Not avoiding thought by a fence of questions,
but somehow unable…                   to move

Clinging onto the rock face
The rain beating on the skylight
Clipped on
Floating like a sleeping angel
who then wakes touching the softness below